How developing your team's tech skills can benefit your organization
With the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of technology, it goes without saying that organisations are adopting more and more technology as a means to improve overall organisational strategy. In order to stay abreast of technological developments and to ensure organisations are able to remain competitive and relevant in this “always-on” economy, it is important to consider the how to best develop the technology skills of organisational teams. These technology skills often consist of both hard and soft skills – for example software development skills and basic e-literacy skills respectively. One major benefit of ensuring that organisational teams are appropriately skilled in relevant technologies is that these skills can be embedded in everyday workflows and provide the organisation with an opportunity to experience economies of scale, where returns on productivity experience a greater yield as output increases, while inputs remain largely stable. So what are some of the core benefits that organisations are likely to experience as a result of developing their team’s technology skills? Let’s explore this in greater detail.
Employees are able to stay up-to-date
Organizations that prioritize the technical skills development of their employees have greater prospects to succeed in the ever-changing world of digitization. Most organizations understand the value proposition that comes with growing technical skills in-house in that it allows them to compete in the digital economy. Developing these technology skills in-house allows organizations to take on new projects that would otherwise have to be outsourced to other organizations that have the technological expertise.
Higher levels of job satisfaction among employees
Employees who are provided with the right training and development to enhance their technical skills are more likely to experience higher levels of job satisfaction. According to Lorman (2021) a company which specializes in training and development, 76% of millennials are of the opinion that training and development opportunities are one of the most important factors of an organization’s culture and 41% of employees consider their organization’s training and development opportunities as a key driver for overall job satisfaction. It goes without saying then that employees rarely find satisfaction in plateauing in their career and that the constant development of their skills plays an important role in achieving increased job satisfaction levels which in turn is a net plus for organizations.
Increased customer satisfaction
Much like employees tend to be more satisfied when they can improve their technical skills, one could argue that a major positive externality is that an organization’s customers and other external stakeholders would also reap the rewards of a technically skilled team. This implies that organizations that invest in upskilling their workforce are better equipped to assist customers by being able to achieve more with the right tools and skills. Michael Redbord (2019) notes that customer service decisions will continue to be more data-driven as technology evolves. The author suggests that customer service platforms are able to store large amounts of data about customer engagement which could be used to improve customer service in the long run.
Improved innovation
One of the largest benefits of improving the technical skills of employees is that it able to foster innovation within an organization. Innovation is an important source of growth within organizations and ultimately allows greater competitive advantage in the marketplace. The adoption of new technologies often presents companies with an array of new opportunities that can be leveraged to achieve overall organizational success and solve other complex challenges. Lam (2011) puts forward the idea that company success and technological innovation are naturally intertwined and allow for new products and services to be created and new processes to be formulated. It is thus important for organizations to see training and development in the field of technology as a means to bolster innovation internally.
Reduced operational costs
The adoption of increased technology throughout organizations tends to lead to reduced operational costs. With the right technology stack in place and with the right expertise to manage these technologies, companies are able to not only lower costs but also increase revenue. Once again, this speaks to economies of scale. While technology is able to increase productivity and enhance knowledge dissemination, it is also able to reduce human error by introducing automation which could lead to a decrease in costs. Although the idea behind automation assumes zero human intervention, it’s worth noting that some technologies still require human input to maximize efficiency and gains. Equipping employees with the right skills to drive automation within a company, results in higher returns, not just monetary returns, but better returns where productivity and the processes of resource allocation are also improved.